Update - More Music by Freil Thrift

     It's been a few days.  Real life has been pretty time-consuming.  I wanted to pop in with a bit of news.  A few posts ago, I mentioned a Hi-8 video, and an audio cassette tape, that might be out in the shed, and that might have Freil playing music on them.  That's an exciting possibility.  Today I went to see my folks, and Mom found TWO audio tapes that have Freil recorded on them.  Plus ONE cd that definitely has him playing, one that MIGHT have him, and another one that probably doesn't, but going to check out just in case.  These are all home recordings/burnt CDs.  Nothing professionally generated.  But still, there's a potential treasure trove of music I've never heard him play, or music I haven't heard in many years.

    So, tomorrow I'll root around the house for a tape player with headphone out (or RCA jack, either is fine).  Don't know offhand where one is, but we have a LOT of old stuff.  There ought to be at least one player around here that will work.  I don't know what kind of quality to expect from the CDs, but the tapes were probably recorded on the ubiquitous radio-shack type of player/recorder that we used in the 70's.  It won't be high-quality, so my goal is to rescue the song as best as possible.  As long as it's recognizable as his piano playing, that'll have to be good enough.  Really excited to hear them!! 

    On a side note, I've been getting a lot of use out of Audacity recently.  Maybe it'll have some feature that will clean up low-quality recordings on old tapes?  Soon enough to tell when I find the hardware to play them on.  

  I jumped the gun just a bit.  Searched the house, found several tape players.  One was busted.  One only played high squeaky sounds.  One played, but only though a built-in amp, and only output to RCA jacks.  From all I've read, plugging that into my mic input jack would have likely burned out my computer's audio board.  At the moment, uploading the audio tape is at a standstill.  Got feelers out with some friends, and family.  If that doesn't work out, the next step is to buy a new one.  Bottom line, it's going to take longer than expected.  Still excited, just have to let all the options play out before spending any money.  

In the meantime, practicing a new song to record for YouTube.  Still have most of the Singing Chapmans "Redeemed" album to write about.  And still have all the songs from their "Introducing" album.  Plus rebuilding something like a decade of blogs from my original Grace Notes, including midi files and sheet music.  We're talking years worth of projects.  At least I won't be bored.

Introducing The Chapman Family ... Singing The Gospel

     I made mention that Freil Thrift was in two record albums with the Chapman family.  The one Monique found on ebay, "Redeemed By The Crucified One"... I've been posting about for several days now.  It came with 12 songs, 6 to a side.  All of those have been digitized by now, and uploaded to Youtube.  

    The seller listed it as being in "Very Good Plus".  At first, I questioned that.  There was a long shallow smudge that seemed likely to cause playback problems.  It took a day or so to gather the necessary equipment (record player, cables and converters) and re-familiarize myself with Audacity.  Recording went perfectly.  That smudge had no effect on playback.  The songs digitized perfectly - audio levels great, no clicks worth worrying about.   It went smoothly and took about an hour.  I was thrilled with it.

    The other album wasn't anywhere online to be found.  I had resigned myself to a long patient wait, when my sister told me she had one.  She called it "the green cover", and told me the one I have is the second one, while the green one is the first record Freil was ever in.  She also allowed that I might be able to borrow it.  So long as I returned it, because "it's as important as my Elvis gospel album!"
    (If you know Karen, you'll know that is the highest level of praise.)

    We were originally planning on her bringing it to Mom and Dad's for me.  I was already planning to visit this weekend.  At some point she realized she couldn't make it to the river (home is very close to the Satilla), so offered to meet up in Nahunta on my way home.  I spent yesterday "at the river."  On the way home, Karen and I met at the Gold House.  It's Nahunta's historic diner, a wonderful place to go.  Both for the memories, and the food.  They make wonderful southern food.  I love their fried chicken.  They also make about the best liver around.  And a great, thick burger and home-style fries.

    This time around, we just had coffee, and sat and talked for a bit.  Got home too tired to start digitizing the record right away.  Got up early this morning, pulled the record out.  Remember a few paragraphs ago, when I mentioned the "Very Good Plus" rating on the other album?  How I questioned it, because of the almost-scratch?  I take it back.  It deserves that rating.  When I looked at Karen's record, the rating would have been "Very Loved Plus."  This is what happens to an album when it's a family favorite, and gets played over and over... for about 50 years.

    As expected, playback wasn't perfect.  It was surprisingly good, though.  Only one spot completely skipped a word.  And that was near the end of a song, so not as high-impact as it could have been.  However.  I like that word.  It's dramatic, with a strong foreshadowing of bad news.  
    However, the album was full of clicks, and the volume was a lot lower than the other record.  To be fair, that's probably due to the way the album was created.  Audacity has a very versatile click remover.  And for the most part, it did a great job.  One or two spots I used custom settings, but most of the time default settings were fine.  Audacity also has a pretty cool amplify effect.  It calculates the highest safe level to raise volume to 0 db.  

    Click removal and the amplify effect fixed everything that could be fixed.  Did a bit of manual cutting and silence generation at the start and end of the songs.  Overall it went very well, but wound up taking three hours to get the best versions of all the songs.

    Best of all, it ended (literally) on a great note - the final song on side 2 was an instrumental, and Freil got a couple of excellent segments featuring his piano playing.  I'm thrilled at how well everything turned out.  It's going to take some time to get them turned into video clips so they can be uploaded to YouTube.  But it'll be absolutely worth it.  All those songs will be permanently available at any time, without having to add more wear to our treasured records.  And so many people who don't know the Singing Chapmans, and Freil's playing, will be able to hear and appreciate them.

The Singing Chapmans Redeemed: When I Wake Up

 

    When I Wake Up To Sleep No More is the 3rd song on Side One of The Singing Chapmans "Redeemed By The Crucified One" album.  I'm not sure how they handled copyrights back in the 60's and early 70's.  The album doesn't mention copyrights, or have author credits.  Years later, my uncle Freil mentioned that he had to pay an amazing amount to record certain songs, so I'm working on the premise that they had to obtain permissions, but not necessarily print it as such on the cover.

    For what it's worth, the song is written by Marion W. Easterling, and copyrighted in 1944.  Easterling was a pretty prolific writer, composing over 300 southern gospel songs.  One of his mentors, Dad Speer, is sometimes credited with writing at least one of the songs on this album (He's Mine and I'm His).  Easterling also has the distinction of a Guiness Book of World Records listing, for his 39 years of programming the gospel radio show, "America's Favorites."  You can find a bit more about him, and his music, at Hymnary.org.  

    I had hoped to post this yesterday, in keeping with trying to post once a day until all the songs from the Chapmans record albums have been acknowledged.  The plan was to write it after spending the day with my parents (and great-nieces).  It's a one-hour drive each way, and driving is not something I'm comfortable with.  By the time I got back, my mind and body were both worn out... wound up giving up early, reading a bit, then calling it a night.  

    Monique and I usually sit outside for a while, by the front door.  We gather up the dogs, sit in our rocking chairs, and talk about our day.  It's a good time to share our thoughts, and the dogs love it.  We Piper and Luna have 15-foot leashes, so they can freely wander the yard, or just sit in our laps.  They smell the night air, watch as the occasional car or person goes by.  If they're lucky, sometimes one of the neighborhood cats saunter by.  A good time is had by all.  :^)

    We both had pretty big days.  Monique made a batch of Macarons for an event a friend is attending.  She rarely makes them, but this is her second time recently.  I believe she plans on making them at least one more time, with a friend.  And I told her all about my day with family, what everybody did and said.  Sometimes we'll sit quietly for a while.  We didn't stay outside long.  It was a lot colder than we expected.  

The Singing Chapmans: He's Mine and I'm His

 

More from The Singing Chapmans, featuring the 2nd song from their "Redeemed By The Crucified One" album.  For the filename, and the Youtube title, I didn't use contractions.  I'm old enough to remember the days you could only use alpha and numeric characters.  At least here, it's done properly... He's Mine and I'm His.  

I looked it up, but couldn't find much.  It seems to be credited to G. T. Speer, but his song title reverses this one (I am His and He Is Mine), and the lyrics he's usually credited with don't match this one.  It feels like there are two songs with a similar title, but nobody else is linked to this one that I can find.  

It's not really pertinent here, since post is celebrating The Singing Chapmans, and especially my uncle, Freil Thrift.  It would be nice, though, to give credit where it's due.  I'd like to know the song's history, and who actually wrote this version's melody and lyrics.

Changing the subject a bit, or at least veering off on a different tangent, tomorrow is Saturday and I'm on my way to see my folks.  Looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad, and my great-nieces.  There's also a bit of serendipity to the trip.  My sister will be there too, and she plans to bring her original album of the first record Freil recorded with the Chapmans.  She's willing to loan it to me... as long as I return it posthaste.

That's perfectly fine, as I only need it long enough to digitize the songs.  I'm excited to hear that album again, and to get those songs on Youtube as well.  There's only two albums I know of that had Freil playing.  I miss him.  It's going to be great to hear again.  As with the other album, it's been 50 (or more) years since the last time I heard it.  

That's going to keep me busy. Between posting all the songs from the "Redeemed by the Crucified One" album, then borrowing Karen's album and sharing them, it should keep me busy for a while.  And... if I get really ambitious, there's a chance I have a Hi-8 video of him and I playing a duet... and if it still plays, might even have an old tape recording in a box in the shed.  Now I just have to find the energy to go through all those boxes!!

Not to mention, I'll need something to play them on.  We certainly have tape players around the house.  With luck, one with a headphone jack so I can transfer the audiotape onto computer.  The tough one is going to be a Hi-8 player.  Not so sure about that.  It's been years since mine broke.  My options are either a mail service that will transfer it for me, or finding a cheap player on eBay...  Guess I'll close up here and start researching.  

The Singing Chapmans: Redeemed By The Crucified One

 It took some work, but all 12 song tracks from the Chapmans "Redeemed" album are uploaded to Youtube now.  I'm going to post them here, also.  Not all at once, but over time.  Starting with the title song, Redeemed By The Crucified One:

    

    I was too young to know much about the Chapmans.  Freil was a rock star to me with his amazing piano playing.  I knew Aunt Elsie May, obviously, and the twins, Odell and Othell.  The others were just adults.  They weren't in my circle, and I never got the chance to get to know them.  According to ChatGPT, The Singing Chapmans were based out of Tennessee.  Since Monique found this particular record album on eBay, and it was being sold from Tennessee, that seems like a connecting link.

    The group included father, Walter Chapman, and his sons, daughters, and a son-in-law.  I can't verify, but it seems likely Freil was the mentioned son-in-law.  If not with that generation, then probably with the succeeding generation after that.  They're credited with other records, radio and tv work, including an appearance on the "Old Time Gospel Hour" with Jerry Falwell.  Falwell was still near the height of his fame in my early 20's, which would put them all together in the right time frame.

    That doesn't sound like a lot of information, but it's more than I'd found previously.  The small amount of corroboration I could find was mainly from a record album of theirs, "Six Hours On The Cross."  I don't know much about it, but the song list includes some songs Aunt Elsie May was known for singing as church specials.  I especially remember her singing "Love Will Roll The Clouds Away."

    In other exciting news, my sister told me today she still has the other Chapman album that Freil was in (not sure of the title, but she called it "the green album."  It was the first one, and if I remember right (it WAS 50 years ago), it had more of my favorite songs.  Not certain, it's just a vague memory of playing the first one, over and over and over.

    Anyway, I'll be visiting family this weekend, and she plans to bring it for me.  To borrow... not to keep.  But that's perfect, I'll digitize it just like with this one, and be able to listen to all the music from both albums.  Plus share it on Youtube so many other old-time fans can hear their music again.

Childhood Memories - The Singing Chapmans

     A few days ago, I was reminiscing with Monique about my uncle Freil's piano playing, and talked about the two record albums he made as part of a southern gospel music family group called "The Singing Chapmans".  Monique, of course, searched on eBay, found one of the albums, and ordered it for me.  It arrived yesterday, and I've been on pins and needles since then, wanting to hear it, and more, to share their songs so everybody else can enjoy the music too.

    Opened the package, took pictures, but got stuck trying to figure out how I was going to play it; and even more importantly, get the music digitized.  We had a couple of record players around the house, and one was a self-contained unit that would have been perfect if I just wanted to listen.  But Monique and I both remembered having a record player years ago that was perfect, with RCA audio outputs hardwired into the case.  Couldn't find it.  Gave up for the night.

Next day, I'm home from work, to see the old record player at my computer.  Monique had found it.  Actually, she found it exactly where we tried to look last night, but she went back and dug deeper.  I've seen old players quit working because they were band driven, and after years, the band can get old, brittle, not play right or outright break.  It was a worry in the back of my mind, but as it turned out the player was just fine.

    There was a bit of technical trouble getting all the working parts to work together.  First, my current computer doesn't have RCA input jacks.  All it's got is microphone in.  There are a number of ways around that, but I chose a bit of a hack.  Out in the shed, in my old audio/video cables box (from the days I did video production), was a "mic in/stereo in" connector.  The same box also had a 1/8" male to male stereo audio cable.  Lucky day!  Like a Rube Goldberg drawing... phono player to RCA out to converter to 1/8" to mic input on the computer.  :^)

    Still not ready.  The record played, I could hear it through the computer speakers (headphones, actually).  But the volume was so low, it was almost more imagination and wishful thinking than reality.  Google to the rescue - it suggested I see what the volume is in the SOUNDS controller.  When I checked, the volume was already maxed, but...  there was a "Microphone Boost" slider that offered up to 30db more volume.  

    Since the audio was so quiet, I slid that thing straight up to +30db and started the record back up.  It nearly broke my eardrums.
I yelled and jumped about half a foot straight into the air, scaring Monique at the same time.  After REDUCING the volume a bit... it was perfect!  And with that, suddenly Audacity was up and running, the audio check worked, audio levels set perfectly.  Roughly an hour later, the entire album is saved to my computer, one song at a time!!

Plus, I got to listen to music I haven't heard in 40 or 50 years.  Smiling the entire time.  It was like regaining a treasure I'd thought long lost.  Good memories of good times, music I never thought to hear again.

Next, I'll put the songs together with an image of the record album, and upload the videos to Youtube.  It may take a few days, but when I post again, there'll be something special for you to listen to.  

Finally Solved the Cookie Consent Riddle!

 I've been struggling with the whole European Union Data Protection (EUDP) Regulation... the Cookie Consent requirement, and by extension the California Consumer Protection Act.  It's easy to understand the need to protect everybody's privacy.  It's not so easy to understand the technical procedures to meet the requirements.  I'm a little more disgusted with government in general after all this.  If they're going to make a law requiring compliance, it should be built into the process.  Not laid on the end-user, many of whom, like myself, just want to write and lack all but the most rudimentary under-the-hood skills.  We're end-users, not professional programmers.

    I'm reasonably intelligent, but didn't want to spend weeks learning website code.  Especially when the advice on the internet is confusing, often incorrect, and overwhelming.  Or hidden behind a paywall, or a membership requirement.  Just at the time you think you learn something, you realize that's just one step, and then you have to learn more to implement another step.  Then you find out what you thought you knew was wrong, and you have to go back a few steps and start over.  It's been frustrating.

    In my last post, I shared a conversation with ChatGPT, asking for advice about how to comply with the cookie consent laws.  The chat occurred on Friday.  By Sunday evening (tonight) I've achieved conformity.  At least, as far as complying with the requirements.  Using the AI's advice as a springboard, I've learned what's actually needed, and how to approach it.  It's not that ChatGPT gave me the exact answers to my questions.  Rather, it gave me enough knowledge and understanding to find my own solutions.  And that's all I needed.  Just some honest, useful, advice.

    To begin, I wrote a Privacy/Cookie Policy page.  I learned the difference between writing a POST on Blogger, and writing a PAGE.  Learned how to use a widget under the layout tab, in the HEADER section, which gave the blog header tabs, in order to have my PAGES easily accessible.  Learned enough to follow (simple) directions from websites that provide the cookie consent popup.  Figured out how to access the HTML code from the Theme tab, and where to paste the popup code.

    Additionally, I learned that many of those "help" websites don't work.  It took trying several, and tampering with the HTML code for the site Theme (the look and feel of my blog, provided by Google).  I had to sign up for several services before finding out that the code they provided didn't function.

The site that worked for me, CookieYes, required a signup as well.  They offered paid services, but lucky for me they have a free service that worked nicely.  And included a tracking page, so you can track the consent record by IP address and date.  (Yes, apparently you have to provide this in case Big Brother wants proof that you're properly getting consent.)  To be honest it did a lot more than I expected, automatically.  I had to sign up first, making sure I chose a FREE service, not a TRIAL OFFER.  (Yeah, I picked the wrong one at first.)

Since I have some old blogs on Blogger, I'm not sure if they fall under some kind of umbrella, or if I'll need to do each one uniquely.  But there's no pressure, because I don't plan on using AdSense on any of the others.  I'll figure all that out another day.

Unlike some of the sites that offered free popup services, CookieYes' popup actually... you know... popped up.  I had to give my own consent to view my blog with the cookies.  For added confirmation that it's working, their stats page actually tracked when I clicked the approval button.  It's SUCH a huge relief to finally understand what needed to be done, and know that it's actually working!

Jump-Starting Grace Notes: Surprising Solutions

 In the previous post, I was (honestly, ranting) explaining about the difficulties of installing a cookie consent widget into Google Blogger.  I've learned a lot about how to do it, but the more I learn, the more it seems there IS to learn.
    The solutions I've tried so far haven't worked.  But even minor progress is still progress, and I'm still trying to figure it out.  Yesterday, a good friend (Thanks, Eugene!) gave me the most amazing suggestion... ChatGPT.

    I'd never heard of it.  If you haven't either, it's an AI that you can freely talk with (like talking with someone on a forum, but more polite).  Ask questions, and in a reasonably natural writing style, it will do its best to answer.  It felt like I was talking to a very smart, and very polite, person.  The suggestions it offered seemed useful and well-thought out.  If you're curious, below is a transcript of the conversation we had:

    I asked, very specifically, how to add a cookie consent widget to my Google Blogger website.  Here's the result.  (My comments are bolded to make it easier to follow)

Jump-starting Grace Notes: Unexpected Difficulties

     My last post may have been overoptimistic.  In assuming everything was converging and the rebuilding would begin, I didn't think (or really even KNOW) about Cookie Consent.  On the surface, it seems like a great idea.  Protect people's privacy.  I'm all for it.
    What I'm not for, is making it so darned complicated to do, that I came close to giving up on Grace Notes.

    A decade ago, all a blogger had to worry about was having a decent privacy policy.  Now, you also need a Cookie Consent policy, and some kind of widget to prevent people from viewing your website until they:

A - acknowledged and approved cookies
B - chose to block cookies entirely
C - or left your website.

    This assumes a LOT of technical ability that I lack. I used to be pretty good on computers, but this overwhelmed and depressed me.  The more I learned, the harder it became.  You can't just post an info page for people to read.  It has to be some kind of blocker, that stops people until they decide what to do.  Technically, there's apparently a requirement to track the names and identifications for everybody that clicked "I Understand" on my blog.  
    Honestly, isn't that ironic?  They want me to maintain a list of private data, of people who allow cookies to track their private data.  Maybe a better word would be redundant.

    Anyway, I've been stuck on this for over a week.  In the old days, there were plenty of friendly bloggers and guides that helped me figure out every complicated issue, because they learned how, and wanted to share.  Now, the web is full of professional sites that require you to sign up, to get their solutions.  Some are free, but still, it's discouragingly rare to find a helpful soul just sharing their knowledge.
    To top it off, the few I've found aren't offering working solutions.  They're outdated, or incorrect, or maybe they're just skipping steps that they assume I already know.  The even fewer guides I've actually been able to follow, either haven't worked... or made disconcerting changes to the blog.  Like the one that turned all my text the wrong color.

    First off... why isn't there a standard widget for this?  So many other functions have been 'widgetized.'

    Beyond that, and a much bigger question, why aren't the companies who CREATE the cookies being held responsible?  Instead of leaving it to a hodgepodge of more or less (or MUCH less) internet savvy folks sitting at home trying to figure this out... Why doesn't the cookie itself include the "click to acknowledge" button? 
    Then, compliance wouldn't be up to millions of independent web-owners who may or may not understand how to accomplish the task.  It would be up to the company that already knows how to program the cookies and make them work!!  It would be problem/solution in one transparent solution.  

At this point, I think there's light on the horizon.  More details coming in the next post.

Ableton Live 10 Lite Export Midi Clip Grayed Out

 Ran into a new snag, and solved it, both on the same day.  That's rare enough, but in this case, after failing to find a fix with Google, I solved it accidentally.

While going through Google, found some solutions, but they must have been obsolete.  The same context menus on my window didn't have the same options.  It sort of made sense that maybe the midi track needed to be selected, but none of the section's I tried to select made a difference.  I was mainly trying to select by right-click, and then looking for the export midi option.  The context menu never changed.  The "File" menu drop-down offered "Export Midi Clip", but it was grayed out.  

Skipping a lot of in-between steps, at one point my finger twitched, the mouse happened to be gliding over the exact right location, and the entire midi track showed up on the bottom row.  After the track is visible, the main "File" dropdown menu shows"Export Midi Clip" in dark text, no longer greyed out.  I tried saving a midi file, and it worked perfectly.

So here's what's been working for me:  I play from the Hammer 88, and record in Ableton.  Or, load a "Live Set" from the hard drive.  Then I play the melody.  Not long, just enough to hear and confirm it's there.  THEN, on the column with your active voice (in my case, the MiniGrand_64), left click on the row with a "square" symbol (See images).  The song track will show up at the bottom, with the red squiggly line.  Now, you can select the drop-down menu "File", and Export to Midi will no longer be grayed out.  I'm not sure if you should select the entire track (CTRL-A) before exporting, it seems to work whether you do or not.  But it's possible selecting only a portion of the track will only export that portion as a midi file.

And... Google Drive

Kind of a side-issue here, but as long as I'm keeping a journal of my learning experiences, I finally figured out Google Drive.  It was stupidly easy, once I quit trying to overcomplicate things.

Due to audio conflicts on my desktop computer - Youtube, several games, Ableton, Windows 10 didn't want to share resources - I wound up getting a small laptop computer that was dedicated to running Ableton.  (Yay for Amazon Lightning Deals on used computers!)  While that pretty much solved the ongoing battle with audio drivers and hardware settings, it meant file transfers between computers took an extra step.  Tonight it finally hit me, no need to do anything fancy.  Don't have to 'install' anything stand-alone.  Just log in on a browser and drag files into Drive.  

Can't believe all that time I've been using USB sticks.  

Grace Notes - Restoring A Lost Website

 So far, these updates have been more 'talk' than 'update'.  I write them for people to read if they want, but mainly to help me not lose the memories.  Eventually I'll start building the "real" pages, with the music.  For now,  just documenting the process so the memory won't be lost.  Between getting older, and losing a great deal of cognition and memory from Covid, forgetting everything important is a huge fear of mine.  So this is something of a journal for me, as well as a record of progress on the blog.

Even back in 2011, when "Grace Notes" was still just wishful thinking, one of it's main purposes was to exercise my memory.  Playing an instrument, learning new songs to play, are supposed to be good for memory.  Making a blog about it felt like a natural extension of the plan.  

After about 10 years, I let the project drop.  It was taking drastically more effort and more time, to learn new songs and arrangements.  Meanwhile, the hosting cost kept shamelessly rising year by year, until I got discouraged and quit.  Eventually funding the hosting company became money I couldn't afford to spend, on a project that never really earned it's keep.  The backup copy made before shutting the site down... disappeared.  The website was gone, all the research and writing was gone.  Recreating the site without the writing, or even my notes, felt like too much of a time sink.

In the middle of all that, my digital grand, the Yamaha DG-640, bit the dust.  Not all at once, but key by key, until it was unusable.  Talked to a repair tech, who told me that the control boards on Yamaha digital grands went brittle after a few years.  Repairs are pointless, because they won't stay repaired.  He convinced me it was cheaper to replace the keyboard.  That's still a lot of money, and it took a while, but now I'm using an M-Audio Hammer 88.  Not really a digital piano, it's more accurately a Midi controller.  It came with Ableton Live 10 Lite.

There were a lot of road blocks along the way, but everything is finally converging.  It took, among other things, getting a dedicated laptop computer to run Ableton.  It also took a lot of time learning a bare minimum to use Ableton.  It was too much complexity for my needs.  Finally everything is working right, and I know exactly how to get my playing from keyboard to Youtube.

Additionally, Monique recently discovered a partial backup of Grace Notes, on the Wayback Machine. It's not complete, but at least I have access to a huge amount of the original site.  I'm nearly done backing all of those pages up onto a hard drive.  Once that's done, there's only one major hurdle left... Adsense.

As best I can tell, my Adsense account is still active.  I'd like to eventually use it on this blog, but google hates plagiarism.  Even when I'm re-creating my own website, with my own original writing.  There doesn't seem to be a sure-fire safe way to put my old pages on this new blog, without being penalized.  The only option is to re-write everything, with enough changes to count as completely original work.

(Update) - After writing around 40 original posts, I applied to Adsense for this site, but was declined.  They wanted me to make drastic and time-consuming changes to the site, for a better chance of being approved.  I like my site the way it is, so there won't be any Adsense on Grace Notes this time around.

At least now, I have much of the original text.  Still time-consuming but better than re-writing it blindly, not knowing if it's different enough.  When I've backed up all the pages that WayBack archived, I'll start bringing back the old(new) pages.

Additionally, I'd like to create and record new arrangements, moving forward with brand new content.  That's the part I'm excited about.  Having fewer "progress reports", and more focus on real content.  Fingers crossed, it won't be long now!!